Once again Johnny is trying to protect his position as leader of his party. He is now trying to put Valarie Woods-Smith in the Albert Division. The PUP already have a candidate in Albert, in the person of Paul Thompson, but the problem with Paul is that he is a Cordel/Zinc-fence man. Back in 2015 when the PUP needed a candidate for Albert, Paul stepped up for them and walked the plank. He was defeated by the UDP dynamo Tracy Teager Panton.
What Johnny is trying to do with Valarie is the same thing that Cordel was trying to do in Port with Candice. Cordel was stopped dead in his tracks when the screening committee which consists of a bunch of (Johnny) loyalists blocked Candice from running and gave Gilroy a free pass. The only difference in Albert is that it is Johnny who is trying to unseat one of Cordel/Zinc fence’s candidate
As for Valarie’s chances of winning in a free and fair convention, we don’t see her going too far with that. Other than her being born and growing up in Albert, she has no true connection to the people of the division. Sure she lived on Palm Lane, but there is where her connection ends. Albert Division is considered as a grassroots area and Valarie is no grassroots individual. She is unlike her sisters Sylvana and Jackie and has no street credentials. Some longtime residents of Albert that we spoke to told us that they don’t remember seeing Valarie walking on any streets such as Regent, Dean, South, Berkley, Prince or Bishop Streets. They made sure to point out to us that she certainly did not walk along the canal side. Apparently she was more of a Southern Foreshore girl. Another thing they told us was that Valarie did not have any of the poorer children as her childhood friends.
Valarie on the other-hand must see herself as the best thing to happen for the Albert Division since the days of Philip Godson. What we’ve notice last week was that the race has already gotten dirty even before it started. We don’t know to who she was referring when she made the following statement on a Facebook post, ”Trying to bully me or scare me to “take” another division will not work. You don’t get to tell me where to run, when to run, and how high to jump. I’m nobody’s puppet. Politics for those men who already are on their nasty attacks has less to do about their interest of people and more about their own self-interest and preservation.”
Now that the PUP Albert Committee already UNANIMOUSLY declared their support for Paul, we expect this race to get very dirty over the next month leading up to the convention. We understand that Kareem is supporting Valerie, so we expect his brand of politics will be introduced into the equations. Chicken-dread will be on the ground getting nasty. And as for money we think between Johnny’s, Kareem and Pinky’s money (Ashcroft’s money), they will out spend Paul. Paul will have to depend on whatever links he built up in Albert over the years when he worked for Mark Espat. He may even want to seek advice from Espat. We could see his handler Cordel utilize whatever dirt he has on Valerie too. That way, proverbial stink bombs would be lobbed from both sides.
